Helpful Score: 11
Highly literary writing often makes this one slow-going, but it's worth the read. Greene explores the theme of committment, in every definition throughout the book. With a single sentence muttered entirely out of fear, one character changes two lives forever. The depth to which Greene considers how committed a person can possibly be to a person, an idea, or a life is possibly the greatest study of this act in literature.
Recommended if you're looking for a deep and satisfying read.
Recommended if you're looking for a deep and satisfying read.
Glenn B. (matthias) - , reviewed The End of the Affair (Twentieth Century Classics) on + 2 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 6
One of the greatest love stories in modern fiction. Second perhaps only to Nabokov's "Lolita." Not for the squeamish though -- the speaker informs the reader at the outset of the story that it is one of hate, not love, which, of course, is the best angle from which to approach a deeper unserstanding of love. Greene's finest work, in my opinion.
Cynthia F. (trainer5740) reviewed The End of the Affair (Twentieth Century Classics) on + 8 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4
I picked up this book after reading Ian McEwan's Atonement, which left me feeling utterly stupid b/c I just didn't "get it." This book restored my faith in my own brain. What a fabulous story, great writing, vivid descriptions. Was very glad I picked up a classic for the first time in ages.
Judith M. (jude35) reviewed The End of the Affair (Twentieth Century Classics) on + 10 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
A great writer, Graham Greene keeps you turning the pages in this novel about a novelist's love affair with his friend's wife. It begins in London during the Blitz. One day, without warning, Sarah break it off. Two years later, driven by obsessive jealousy and grief, the novelist sends a private detective to follow Sarah and find out the truth.
Cheryl (boomerbooklover) -
Helpful Score: 1
A classic novel of all-consuming love and hate -- in the same relationship. Very British story of a man having an affair with a married woman in London during WWII. Though both are mad for one another, the woman abruptly ends the relationship without explanation. The man turns to a private detective to try to find out why. I read this a few months after seeing the movie on TCM, which made the book a little easier to follow, and the movie make more sense.
